Day one of the MAST’s 2022-2023 Year-End invitational tournament at Ten Pin Alley in Fitchburg is in the books.

Thirty-two bowlers participated in Saturday’s eight-game qualifying round, competing on Kegel’s Mercury oil pattern. Derek Eoff and Justin Petrey tied for the last two qualifying spots at 1,702; Eoff held the tiebreaker between the two with high qualifying game (256-248) to earn the 11th seed in Sunday’s round-robin match play, with Petrey taking the 12th seed.

The day was dominated by former year-end champions, as all six of the former year-end titlists in this year’s field advanced to Sunday’s match-play round. Tim Janz (2005) led wire-to-wire and pulled away from the field, finishing at 1,969 to claim the top seed. Mike Hoffman (1997 & 2017) was in the top five all day Saturday and finished with games of 278 & 222 to grab the 2nd seed at 1,802. Defending year-end champion Chris Gibbons qualified third at 1,759, Jonathan Schalow (2013) finished fourth at 1,746, and four-time year-end champion Jeff Richgels rounds out the top five at 1,729. Also advancing to Sunday’s round-robin match play are Brent Ritchie (6th – 1,728), Chris Pollentier (7th – 1,721), Devon Boeck (8th – 1,710), Ben Hafeman (9th – 1,705), and Matt Krueger (10th – 1,704).

Sunday’s match play begins at 11:30am and will consist of eleven round-robin matches + a final position round match, with the top four bowlers advancing to the stepladder finals. We hope to see you all there.